POLL Those Years Ago: The Beatles Solo Careers Poll Results Thread

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here we go!

Some general stats:- A whopping 476 individual tracks received votes- Not surprisingly, the general split between members had a lot to do with the volume of their respective outputs. In terms of songs they played on that got votes, Paul had 232, John had 117, George had 119 and Ringo had 58.- In terms of overall points McCartney was again favored just by virtue of the fact that so many of his songs were voted for. So in terms of the points allotted to songs they played on, Paul had 47,173, John had 42,892, George got 34,472, and Ringo got 32,013.

Bear in mind these statistics have little bearing on where songs actually place in the poll results. I'm going to roll these out pretty fast, starting from 100.

YES! Two Paul songs that I would have voted for 'Calico Skies' and 'Getting Close', and one John that I would have voted for 'Oh My Love' - which is way too low. I really should have submitted that ballot.

The first 4 or 5 tracks (and that final track) are great — for a minute I was like, “Is this gonna be a one-guy skewed bedroom-pop classic? — but then there’s some real bloozy shmooz in the middle. I do like a few of the instrumentals. I guess it was a big deal for a guy like McCartney to release an album full of that stuff, showing that he’s not weighed down by his rep?

It also sent me off listening to other stuff that seemed related in my personal taxonomy, like Fred Frith’s Cheap at Half the Price (that’s a lot more “unconventional,” of course).

Nah, he'd already released McCartney ten years prior, which was mostly him pissing about at home. In between those two, it was all stuff with (Paul McCartney &) Wings and Ram (which was billed as a Paul & Linda album) ...

The first album released solely under his name (i.e. not Wings) to have high production values is Tug of War, which was designed to be a blockbuster.

It's a mixed bag of stuff - 'Junk' and 'Teddy Boy' were songs that didn't make it onto The Beatles, I think 'Hot as Sun' was written pre-Beatles even (I'll have to double check that) ... most of the songs were just made up as he was recording. 'Maybe I'm Amazed' is the best song on there, IMO, and it's tempting to think of it as an obvious Beatles single had they stayed together.

The first McCartney is pretty much McCartney pissing about at home and trying to take his mind off the whole Beatles fall-out, whereas McCartney II was McCartney pissing about at home in between Wings projects and possibly trying to come up with something for the next Wings album. 'Wonderful Christmastime' came out of the same sessions.

Of course, the Japan thing happened and Wings broke up and a solo album was cobbled together from the demos.

I agree. It's not the best McCartney album but nor is it down there with his worst (Pipes of Peace, Off the Ground) and it does have some neat stuff on it. 'One of These Days' is a middle table McCartney song at best, though, whereas 'Maybe I'm Amazed' is one of his finest songs.

I understand hearing it as middling McCartney. but it's one of those simple, sad, understated songs that, if you they get to you and hit you at the right time, they become favorites, unspeakably beautiful and suddenly offering shelter, inspiration. I had McCartney II for three years and knew the song before I got stuck on it.

The first /McCartney/ is pretty much McCartney pissing about at home and trying to take his mind off the whole Beatles fall-out, whereas /McCartney II/ was McCartney pissing about at home in between Wings projects and possibly trying to come up with something for the next Wings album. 'Wonderful Christmastime' came out of the same sessions.

Of course, the Japan thing happened and Wings broke up and a solo album was cobbled together from the demos.

I’ve certainly heard the Japan bust story before but never read that the McCartney II sessions were anything but an album proper. Where did you see this?